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Re: Introducing formula

Thanks for all the suggestions. I feel much more confident now that I can manage by expressing a little milk outside work hours to tide him over while I'm away and hopefully not have to introduce formula.
I'm hesitant to build up a frozen stock of milk as I'm hoping to move country in the next fews months and in that case the milk would have to be dumped.

Re: Introducing formula

Perhaps a small stash would work for you, 10-12 ounces or so. Just enough to keep a couple of days ahead of your lo

~Jenn~

mother of 2 boys!08/14/98~~03/20/08Birth: 7lbs 12oz, 1 year: 22lbs 11oz until he self-weaned 4 days before his third birthday ... still on occasion ... and happily ************************************************** ************************************************** *****************People need to understand that when they're deciding between breastmilk and formula, they're not deciding between Coke and Pepsi.... They're choosing between a live, pure substance and a dead substance made with the cheapest oils available. ~Chele Marmet

Re: Introducing formula

Originally Posted by @llli*sch.mommy

Perhaps a small stash would work for you, 10-12 ounces or so. Just enough to keep a couple of days ahead of your lo

Absolutely. You can easily just keep enough for a couple extra bottles in case one gets spilled or is left out or something. I recently had to throw milk out because I socked away too much and it sat in the back of my freezer for far too many months.

Re: Introducing formula

Following all the great advice here I got myself a manual pump and plan to continue a diet of exclusive breastmilk when I return to work in 4 weeks.

To ease my DS into it I started "trying" to introduce one bottle of breastmilk per day about a week ago. Pumping, even with the manual, has been no problem. I pump once in the morning and can get anything from 2.5oz to 5oz in 15 minutes. Which I believe is more than enough milk to get DS through the period I will be at work. But, so far I have had no luck at all with the bottle! He refuses a bottle (three different types), a cup and a spoon. He gets extremely upset and even fights me when I eventually give up and put him on the breast. Of course I have 4 weeks to get him to come around before I return to work so I am not over concerned yet.

However, something important has come up which requires me to be away from home tomorrow for about 5 hours. I am really worried about what will happen while I am gone. DH will be with DS and will try everything to get some milk into him. I'm worried that DS will end up screaming for hours while I am away. I always feed DS on demand which is usually every 2-2.5 hours. Does anyone have any advice on what we could do?

Re: Introducing formula

Has DH tried to bottle feed? Some babies always hate the bottle. My. DS2 was like that and I was super stressed preparing to return to work. Usually these babies refuse a bottle from mom, they can smell you right next to them and don't want to drink a bottle! Have DH or someone else try when you are out of the house, you may need to try several bottle types and was to hold baby while feeding but try not to worry too much it will work out eventually.

Re: Introducing formula

It will probably go better when it's not YOU trying. I think it must be very confusing for infants to be held by their mother, SMELL Their mother and then be given a bottle to suck on. But if you are not there, and the person holding him is not someone who he expects to put their boob in his mouth, if he is hungry, while you are gone, he will eat!

Re: Introducing formula

DH has tried with the bottle while I was in another room. He managed to get 1oz into him yesterday before the screaming started. I held out for 30 minutes before offering the breast so that he wouldn't associate rejecting the bottle with getting the breast (something I read online). From the ones we tried, the most successful bottle was the Chicco Step Up (this was the one the 1oz came from). Probably another oz of milk was lost to DS spitting it out.
I'm now regreting not introducing a bottle before 3 months, I just really enjoyed spending the time feeding DS myself and I never had any problems with latching etc. Maybe I made a mistake! I just need to get through tomorrow because I don't foresee anything else taking me away from DS before I return to work.

Re: Introducing formula

I think you shouldn't stress. We are animals. We are hard wired to survive. Even if your child didn't eat for 6-8hours while your away, as long as he is allowed full access when with your it would be fine. We wouldn't wake a baby who was sleeping for 6-8hour stretches at night because they were sleeping through. Some babies actually WILL wait for their mothers. And if that is what a child does there is nothing worrying will do to fix it anyway. Your baby will just reverse cycle. But MOST babies WILL take a bottle from someone who isn't their mother. Dont' 2nd guess the three months you spent getting to know your son and letting him regulate your supply. You only gets this time once.